Breathe Your Last
by GetWithIt
Summary: Michaela died. Now, as Karin, she's got the chance to live again. Too bad there's always a catch. AU. SI/OC.
1. In Transition

_**A/N: **__Okay, okay. I realize I haven't updated NLOL, but I have a good feeling about this one! This is a similar idea (with the whole reincarnation thing) but will be a more serious take on your average SI/OC-insert._

_Anyway, this was inspired by all those fics where an OC-insert takes the place of a main character. I thought I'd do my own version with a more obscure (yet still important) character._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

'_Brrinng. Brrinng.'_ Michaela gripped the steering wheel tighter in an effort to ignore her phone. She wasn't going to tempt fate by answering while she drove. Having her license for only a year was _not_ a good enough reason to attempt talking and driving.

'_Brrinng!' _She groaned aloud. "Please, please stop calling me already!" A beat of silence followed her desperate plea and she grinned smugly – only to have her lips twitch back into a frown when it sounded again.

Determined to ignore it, Michaela turned up the radio and focused on searching for her exit. Luckily, she caught a glimpse of a sign proclaiming 34B was only six miles up. A moment later her phone stopped its incessant buzzing and beeping.

Relieved, Michaela spent the next five minutes or so humming quietly along to some song she'd never heard before slowing down to take the curving exit.

Just as she made it halfway around she was able to make out a smoking car stopped on the road ahead of her. There was no space on either side of the car – just two low barriers and trees on either side of the road beyond them. The trees were the reason why Michaela hadn't seen the other car sooner.

Slamming her brakes and hissing curses Michaela realized she wasn't going to stop in time. The man standing beside the car dropped his cell phone and scrambled back towards the smoking vehicle, his mouth moving in what she assumed was a shout. As her car screeched closer she noticed there were scared faces in the back seat of the stopped car. "Oh, no… please no…"

Swallowing her panic she swerved to the left in an attempt to avoid killing both the children and herself. Her car, released from the tight turn it had been in, slammed into the concrete barrier before flipping over it altogether. The vehicle ended up flipping twice, leaving it upright when it finally came to a halt against a large tree.

This time smoke was billowing from her car's engine, nearly obscuring the small fire in front of her. A gurgled moan sounded and Michaela realized it was her own. It was as if all her senses had been shut off and restarted and all she could do was suffer through it. Her glasses were miraculously intact, if a bit skewed, and she could tell it was a low hanging tree branch causing the searing pain from the center of her forehead to her right temple.

The front end of her car was smashed in more heavily on the left side and it was with mounting horror that Michaela looked down. She let out a strangled sound when she saw her left leg. Her foot was hidden from view but her knee and shin looked disgustingly flat and bloody beneath the twisted mix of metal and plastic. Through some miracle she couldn't feel it, but that by no means meant she wasn't in pain – far from it, in fact.

Aside from the shattered glass embedded in every visible inch of skin she could see; the door had crumpled so completely that the left side of her rib cage was pinned against the seat. Michaela could tell something was wrong with her lung. She struggled to inhale, choking on blood as she did so. She distractedly noticed the airbag had partially deployed. She doubted it would have helped her even if it had been working correctly.

'_Brrinng! Brrinng!' _A hysterical laugh bubbled up and turned into painful sobbing at the sound of her ringing cell. _I don't think I'm going to be able to answer that anytime soon._

"Hey! Miss! Can you hear me?" Michaela heard the voice above the ringing in her ears and turned her head. Or rather, she tried to. The branch that had broken through the windshield dug a little deeper when she tried to move her head to the left so she settled for cutting her eyes towards the voice.

It was a little hard to see clearly but Michaela managed to make out the man's violently orange hair through the blood and smoke obscuring her vision. It was the same man whose car had been blocking the exit. She even caught a glimpse of his two children a little ways away.

"It's going to be okay." His voice was strained and Michaela knew without a doubt he was lying. There was a certain amount of desperation to his voice that left no room for doubt. "I've called an ambulance – they'll fix you up. You're going to be fine."

Trying her utmost to focus while her vision faded in and out, Michaela struggled to remain conscious. Suddenly she was so, _so_ afraid. _I'm going to die_, she thought with startling clarity. _I'm only seventeen and I'm going to die today._

"…Hey! _Hey! _Stay with me!" She found herself back in the car, no longer lost to that horrible void. She locked eyes with the man again. He had reached through the broken window and across her body to rest his hand on her uninjured shoulder. "My name's Jason. Can you tell me yours?"

"Mi… chaela…" she rasped shallowly; trying to ignore the rising fluid in her lungs. She brought her right hand up to grip Jason's hand on her shoulder, clinging to it. Michaela was sobbing pitifully while simultaneously struggling to breathe. "It… _hurts,_" she choked out.

The best she could do to describe her pain was to say it was unbearable. Michaela kept shifting between the excruciating agony of her injuries and the periods of blackness that signified her lapses in consciousness. The time spent in a stupor only made the pain all the more awful when she returned to it.

Vaguely she realized the man was sobbing right along with her. "Dad? _Dad?!_" It was one of the children from the car. With a monumental effort Michaela focused on the two little girls, one of whom had her dad's bright orange hair. They were clutching each other under a tree a little ways away and the older one – with the orange hair – had a cell phone to her ear. She was holding back the younger girl.

Both were crying pitifully. The brunette couldn't have been older than seven while the other looked to be about twelve or so.

"Stay back girls! It's not safe!" Jason only turned long enough to make sure they were listening before once again focusing on Michaela. He went back to choking out reassurances and platitudes. "…_Dammit!_ Where's the ambulance?!"

"They say it's really close!" His daughter called out through her tears. Michaela jerked her eyes open and used every last bit of her strength to cling to the hand still gripping her shoulder. The pain was fading, becoming more distant and focusing on staying awake became even harder.

The panic she had felt at being unable to breathe started to fade away along with the pain. _Is this it?_ Michaela's right eye was completely obscured with blood now and each breath she took was wet and left her choking. The fire at the front of her car looked like it was steadily dying and she could hear the telltale buzzing of her phone coming from the floor on the passenger side. Even fainter were the sounds of horns and shouts coming from the road.

"…Michaela! Breathe with me! You're going to be just fine. Can you hear it? The ambulance is close. You can hear the sirens if you focus…" But Michaela couldn't focus – not with the way her mind was drifting. She could no longer speak through the fluid in her airways but she tried to mouth the words she wanted to say to this man. _Thank you for staying with me. Thank you. It's okay. I'm dying, I'm scared, but it's okay. Thank you._

And then Jason was gone. Michaela had no clue whether she was dead or merely unconscious; she only knew that oblivion wasn't so bad compared to the pain she'd been in before.

She lost all sense of self. There was only peace, but no conscious thought to disrupt her rest. No sense of time invaded her existence in the void until it was all unexpectedly ripped from her.

She felt as though she was being strangled by a snake. Whatever surrounded her weak and feeble body had it in a vice grip. A cacophony of sounds pounded at her eardrums but she ignored it in favor of the other sensations overwhelming her body. She could feel fluid in her mouth and it brought her unwillingly back to the accident. She lost herself in panic as she frantically spit and coughed until she was free to breath, to gasp, to scream –

And then suddenly the rest of her body was free and she felt as though she was falling through the air. She supposed she wasn't actually falling – she never hit the ground – but she felt the same level of exposure. The air stung her sensitive skin and she felt pressure in odd places, like she was hitting things on the way down.

Then her head was cradled in something large, yet not unyielding. What felt like a massive rag rubbed roughly at her eyes and nose, clearing them of disgusting fluids. Michaela tried to flail even as she continued wailing and screaming at the top of her lungs. Unfortunately her flailing was put to a halt when some sort of fabric bound her body – encasing her.

It was horrible.

The feelings of helplessness, fatigue, fear, and whatever else she was feeling and couldn't put a finger to were drowning her, much like the fluids had earlier. Soon even her wailing had to end when she realized how short of breath she was.

None of the resignation to her fate from earlier remained. Before, she had been eager to escape the pain; now, she fought to live. She couldn't feel any of the injuries she'd sustained in the accident – she reveled in that fact even whilst she struggled against her restraints.

Unexpectedly, she felt movement again. Even with her eyes open she couldn't make out more than blurs and an excessive amount of white. The sensation of movement came to an abrupt end when she was transferred to another strange, moving surface.

Her sniffles and whimpers – all that was left of her earsplitting shrieks – died down a bit in her exhaustion. Michaela realized belatedly her adrenalin rush had run its course and settled for sleeping it off in the hopes that when she woke up, things would make sense.

And so she slept.

* * *

The next three years passed by without much fuss. Michaela would've found it odd, had she been able to truly think about it.

It was like drifting in a raft in the middle of an endless ocean. The part of her that was _not_ an occasionally fussy toddler – the part that had lived and died as someone else – didn't really exist anymore. All the memories and thoughts were there, in her mind, but they were small and insignificant to the greater whole.

Her new self ignored the thoughts and memories she couldn't understand in favor of living in the present. Playing with her mother, father, and the stray dog they'd taken in before her birth.

She was utterly normal, aside from the fact that she lapsed into English when frustrated and upset. Her parents didn't understand or recognize it, so they felt no need to look further. They thought she'd merely descended into meaningless baby-babble.

It was only as her sense of self and personality developed that she delved deeper into her memories. With age came understanding and with it she was finally able to use her memories to her advantage. Getting the language down couldn't be sped up, but the knowledge of a past life certainly helped with the simple lessons in math her mom insisted on giving her.

She grew, mentally, at least, unusually quickly.

For most people, experiences and time are the only means to gain maturity. Michaela had an unfair advantage – she could simply revisit parts of her old life, lessons she'd already learned, to speed up her mental aging.

Of course, it wasn't a perfect method. She could only truly recall the things that were ingrained; like how to brush her teeth or how to add. Even then, time and a different perspective gave the memories a secondhand feel to them – they couldn't quite measure up to the experiences of her most recent life.

In the end, her parents were left with a mildly precocious and uncannily perceptive child. If she'd been able to look at it objectively, the girl formerly known as Michaela would think her new parents lucky in that she hadn't been born with any knowledge of their language. Otherwise, things would have been a lot weirder for the two adults.

As it was, things reached a whole new level of strange the day she turned four.

* * *

"Ouch, mom! That _hurt_!" Karin cradled her stinging digits to her chest and scowled at her mother.

"Good. Maybe next time you'll think twice before you try to get into the food before dinner," the woman griped irritably. The wooden spoon she'd used to smack Karin's reaching fingers slid back into her apron's front pocket.

Karin spared a glare for the bulge in the white fabric that was her mother's favorite weapon before looking up with wide, imploring eyes. "But mom," she said innocently, "I was going to eat everything I touched!"

"That's not the point I was trying to make and you know it," Chiaki scolded. "When dinner is done and your father gets home we'll eat, but not until then." Her face softened at Karin's pout. "You can play with Luka in the meantime, I'm sure he wants to wish you a happy birthday."

Karin heaved a dramatic sigh, "Fine. Just don't let dad eat all the strawberries before I get back." Her mother nodded absently and turned back to the sink to rinse the vegetables. Karin, satisfied that her strawberries were safe, darted out of the kitchen to find her shoes. She didn't much enjoy wearing them when the weather was so warm, but her mother could be downright scary when it came to manners and hygiene. Apparently, running around barefoot was neither polite nor sanitary.

Once the dreadful things were on Karin paused to focus before smiling and running for the copse of trees behind her home. She jumped over roots and dodged branches until she reached the small clearing that separated the crescent-shaped thicket from the rest of the woods.

"Luka!" When there was no answer she huffed a laugh and ran over to the wooden structure at the center of the clearing. "Luka! I know you're there, come out already!"

There was a muffled shuffling noise and a little boy's head popped up in the small window before he ducked back down, giggling. "Hey!" Karin yelled. "I saw you!" There was no answer, only more laughter coming from the miniature house. "_Luka! _I can hear you!"

"No you can't!"

Karin rolled her eyes at his ridiculousness and walked over to the tiny building. Ever so slowly she leaned over the windowsill to stare down at the boy crouched beneath it. His eyes were closed and he had his arms over his head, as if that would prevent her from seeing him. Karin sucked in a deep breath and leaned even closer, "BOO!"

She had to jerk back quickly to avoid having her nose broken, but she deemed it worth the shrill scream that escaped him. She took one look at Luka's wide eyes and frantic breathing and promptly cracked up. "You - you..." she gasped, "you screamed just like a little girl!"

"I did not!" His indignation was clear on his face and Karin toned down her amusement so as not to push him too far. The last thing she wanted to deal with was a tantrum on her birthday.

Once certain she wouldn't break out into hysterical laughter anymore, Karin wiped a stray tear discretely and gave her friend a smile. "Sure, sure, you gave a very manly shout," she assured, "I was only teasing."

Appeased at last, Luka returned her smile before rushing to the flimsy door to the left of the window and flung it open. Karin shifted her feet and bent slightly just in time to avoid toppling when he threw his arms around her. "Happy birthday Karin!" He grinned widely, showing off an adorable set of dimples - at least according to Karin's mother. "We're finally the same age!"

"Yup! Oh, I forgot," Karin pulled her sleeve back to show off her wrist. "Thanks for the birthday gift - it's really great!"

Luka stepped closer. "Oh good! I was hoping Lisa dropped it off this morning." He pointed to the top of her wrist. "Dad helped me with this part. He took a knife and cut two lines in the leather so we could braid it, but _I_ carved the beads on the end. I only added one on each end of the tie so that every year I can give you a new one!"

Karin blinked in surprise. "Wow! That's a really good idea Luca, I like it even more now!"

"I knew you would, I'm an awesome gift-giver," he boasted.

"I don't know," Karin mused. "Your dad's the one who built our play-house for your birthday last year." She motioned to the miniature, two-story house less than three feet away. "I think that's just a teeny, tiny bit more awesome than your awesome present."

Luka pouted. "Okay, okay," he admitted, "My dad is a great gift-giver. But I bet I'll be an even _better_ one when I grow up! It's just gonna take some time is all."

Karin nodded her agreement. "You're probably right. Now let's play! I've been working on my doggy bark _and_ it's my birthday so I say we pretend that we're a pack of wild dogs this time."

"Okay!" Luka's face lit up in a smile, "How about we pretend that we're hunting dinner when a storm comes so we have to look for shelter - "

"And the play-house can be an abandoned cabin in the woods that we find - "

"Oh! Oh! How about the house is haunted! With - with - "

"With the ghost of a man who died of a broken heart when his brother ran off with his wife!" Karin interjected excitedly. Admittedly, she'd gotten that from something she'd heard her mother talking about with the baker's wife, but it worked as well as anything else.

"Yeah! And so he's really angry all the time and tries to scare us away. Then we have to fight back in a huge battle with all our other animal friends and send him to the afterlife!"

"Uh-huh. Only, instead of sending him to the afterlife - how about we make him realize how silly he's been when we defeat him and he goes peacefully!"

Luka adopted a thoughtful look before nodding. "Works for me!"

Soon they were running around on all fours, laughing and barking at nothing and everything. They took turns playing the ghost so that whoever was still a wild dog could fake beat him up with cool moves and crazy sound-effects. It was the same thing Karin and Luka always did when they played together. While the situations were always changing, the games were always exciting and fast paced. They got a _little_ too excited when they got to the fight with the ghost and ended up defeating him too quickly. Not wanting to go home just yet, Karin convinced Luka to be the prince in a new game where he had to protect his country from a mighty red dragon.

"Rawr! I've come to steal your princess," Karin growled. "Hand her over or I'll eat you!"

"Never!" cried Luka as he took of running for his 'castle'. Karin pursued him at a steady pace, giving Luka enough time to run inside and climb the steps to the second floor. He leaned out the window to call down to her, "You'll never get in! I've locked the gate!"

Karin, with flushed cheeks and bright eyes shouted back, "Nothing can stop me! I'm a dragon and I can fly!" With that said she started scaling the little building, using the windowsill on the first floor as a step. She reached up to the second floor window and pulled herself up slowly, having trouble finding traction against the smooth walls with her muddy shoes.

Luka was still shouting about how she'd never get him when she finally managed to swing a leg over and into the playhouse. The two play fought with imaginary swords and claws, laughing all the while. It wasn't until Karin tried to stand in the window that things started to go wrong.

She'd been crouched on the sill with her hands braced on the frame when the mud from her shoes sent her left foot sliding back and into the air. She let out a startled gasp and released the window frame in an attempt to reach forward and steady herself. Unfortunately, Karin's panic had her moving too abruptly and her right foot slid off the sill in her haste to lean forward. Her chest slammed hard into the sill and knocked the breath from her lungs. Karin only had time to briefly lock wide eyes with Luka before she was falling back.

Her heels hit the ground first, before her momentum took over and the rest of her body followed. She tried to twist around and catch herself, but there simply wasn't enough time. Her left arm ended up twisted beneath her as her torso hit the ground with a surprisingly quiet thud.

Karin blinked in shock for a moment before pain flooded her senses and made her see white. She tried to draw in breath but found herself incapable of inhaling. Suddenly she was sitting up _-crushed- _as smoke billowed in. There was a flash of color _-orange-_ in the corner of her eye and strange sounds pounding at her eardrums. She couldn't breathe _-no air- _and tasted blood in her mouth.

She _screamed._


	2. Revelations

**_A/N: _**_Here's chapter two! If you find any mistakes or think I should elaborate on something feel free to let me know. Also, just so you know, I'm going to try to keep every chapter from this point on above or around 5,000 words (This one's not quite 4,000)- my other stories have really short chapters and it annoys me. Enjoy!_

* * *

"Karin!" Michaela internally jerked when her new name broke through the haze of unconsciousness. "Karin, it's time to wake up." Michaela groaned at the sound of her mother's voice and burrowed deeper into her bed. She was just about to drift off when she heard a huff and her blanket was ripped from her.

Michaela automatically curled into a ball even as she opened her eyes to glare at her mother. The light blinded her for a moment, but the pain served to wake her up fully. _Karin_ grumbled a bit about inconsiderate women before she saw the look on her mom's face. "What is it?"

"How are you feeling sweetie? Does anything hurt?" Her mom tucked a wisp of deep red, nearly burgundy, hair behind her ear and leaned forward to examine Karin's left arm.

Karin frowned in confusion. "No, nothing hurts. Why would it?"

"Don't you remember?" Karin shook her head. "You got hurt playing with Luka. You were climbing on the playhouse - which you should know is dangerous," she paused to shoot an intimidating glare at Karin. "Anyway, you fell and got hurt pretty badly."

As her mom spoke images flashed into Karin's mind. She winced. "I remember now." And she did. She remembered the terrible moment where she realized she was falling, the fall itself, and then hitting the ground, _hard_. Karin gulped a bit and gently bent and straightened her seemingly undamaged left arm. "I could have sworn I broke my arm when I fell..."

"You did." Karin jerked her head up in shock. Her mom looked completely serious.

"How long have I been asleep? Days? _Weeks_?!" Karin jumped out of bed and swiveled her head back and forth, as if expecting something in her room to indicate how long it'd been. "How long does it take for broken bones to heal anyway?"

For the first time since Karin woke her mother cracked a smile. "No sweetie - it's only been a day. And you didn't just break an arm. You also sprained an ankle and nearly fractured a rib."

Karin froze and looked down at her body. It was completely whole and healthy. She was standing next to her bed with no pain to speak of. She glanced suspiciously at her mother. "Are you messing with me?"

This time Karin's mother didn't just smile, she laughed. "Nope. I promise I'm not messing with you." Karin stared at her mom in disbelief; she didn't know much about medicine, but when Luka's older sister broke her arm it took weeks to heal. Her mom just shook her head fondly and reached down to scoop Karin up. "Come on, your dad and I will explain while we eat a late breakfast."

The two entered the kitchen where Karin squirmed until she was let down from her mom's hip. She clambered onto her chair as her mom moved to put breakfast on the table.

"Hey princess," Karin's dad flashed her a boyish grin as he sat down. "How're you feeling this morning?"

"Um, fine I think." She glanced at her mom uncertainly. "But I'm still a little confused about that."

"It's okay sweetie. We're going to explain a few things to you." Karin's mom turned to her husband. "Do you want to? Or should I?"

Kaito grimaced in an uncharacteristic fashion. "Sorry, but I don't think I'm up to it." He glanced down at his hands and tightened them into fists. "If you can explain the... situation with our family I can explain the rest."

Chiaki leaned over and placed a comforting hand on her husband's shoulder. "That's fine." Karin watched the strange display with wide eyes. Her parents were hardly ever this serious, especially around her. She wondered what could have brought this on. How could her good health have anything to do with some family secret? Why would it make her dad so visibly upset?

She was four, but Karin didn't always feel that way. There were times when she understood things and knew things that other children her age couldn't grasp. She suspected now was one of those times. Rather than simply wondering why her parents were suddenly sad and serious, Karin was making guesses as to the reasons and trying to draw conclusions from things she doubted any of her friends could see, let alone comprehend.

"Karin," her mother began - breaking the girl from her thoughts. "I'm going to tell you things about us, about our family and you, that you're going to have to keep a secret. Can you promise me you won't tell anyone what you learn here today?"

Karin wanted to ask why, but she could tell in the long run it wouldn't make a difference. When her mother took that tone, you obeyed - no questions asked. Karin adopted the gravest expression she could at her age and nodded. "I promise."

"Good." Her mom took a deep breath. "The first thing you need to know is that your father and I were not born in Grass. Both of us come from a country that no longer exists." Karin nodded to show she understood. "Our nation consisted of three neighboring islands, each with cities and towns of their own. We were small, but our military was highly skilled and our allies formidable." A strange expression stole over Chiaki's face before she shook herself and continued. "The islands themselves were surrounded by swirling tides and eddies, giving us an impressive natural defense as well as our name."

"Name?" Karin asked. She knew the names of all the countries that bordered Grass, but she'd never heard of any destroyed nations before.

"Whirlpool," said Chiaki. "We're from the country formerly known as Whirlpool. A swirl even became the symbol of our most prominent family and eventually, our military."

"Okay, but what does all this have to do with me getting hurt and waking up healed?" She could tell her mom was trying to go somewhere with all this, she just didn't know where.

"Trust me, you'll see in a minute," her mom insisted. "Anyway, just like Grass, our country had a large military capital. This capital was located at the center of our largest island and was referred to as the Village Hidden in Whirlpools. It was where those who joined our military were trained and stationed. One day, our enemies joined up to attack Whirlpool and attempted to overwhelm us through superior numbers.

"A lot of people were hurt badly and even more died. Because they attacked our military first, no one was able to come to the defense of the other islands - the units stationed there were easily overpowered. We had back up defenses of course, but instead of destroying our enemies we destroyed ourselves." Her voice cracked a bit and Karin nearly jumped when her dad let out a frustrated noise. "Entire settlements were wiped out and very few managed to escape.

"Some of the survivors met up, some didn't, but eventually life went on. Many went to live in the Fire, as they'd always been our closest and strongest ally. Others moved elsewhere to start over. Of the survivors, the ones who were members of the prominent family I mentioned before, the Uzumaki, had to be especially careful of where they ended up and who they shared their identities with."

Karin was confused. "Why would they have to hide their identities?"

"Well, we live in a world where everyone is constantly trying to get revenge. Nearly eighty percent of Whirlpool's population was made up of those with Uzumaki blood. Even those from other countries could recognize a member by their distinctive red hair and incredible vitality. Members of the clan knew they could be targeted by anyone who wanted revenge on Whirlpool or the Uzumaki. So they went into hiding and avoided using their clan name."

The pieces came together and Karin's eyes widened in surprise. "Are we part of that family?"

"We are," her mom confirmed.

"I still don't see what that has to do with the healing thing though," Karin ventured.

Kaito spoke up. "I can explain the rest." Chiaki stared at him as if to make sure before nodding slowly and reaching for the fruit at the center of the table. As his wife started to eat Karin's dad shifted in his seat so that he was directly facing his daughter. "The Uzumaki family, _our _family, was considered a clan because it was so large," Kaito explained.

"Some clans only share a name or things like physical traits, while others also share special skills." Kaito stared off into the distance as if the walls held some sort of answer. "The Uzumaki," he began after a lengthy pause, "Aside from their vibrant red hair, had what your mother referred to as 'incredible vitality' . Members of the clan were known for their recuperative powers and incredibly long lifespans. Because of this, they were the ideal soldiers."

Karin tilted her head in confusion. Her dad, unlike her mother, often forgot that Karin, for all her intelligence, was still only a child. "What does 're-cupe-er-a-tive' mean?"

Kaito sighed in exasperation and dodged the slice of apple Chiaki threw at him in response. "When I said recuperative powers I meant their ability to heal." Karin pointed to herself. "Yes, Karin, just like you did." He reached out and gently touched Karin's arm. "You broke your arm, sprained your ankle, and bruised your side badly yesterday." His lips quirked into a smile. "Yet today you stand whole and healthy, not a single sign of injury to be seen."

"So everyone in our family can heal like me? Even you and mom?" Karin looked between her parents, neither had any visible scars that she knew of.

"Well, not exactly," her dad amended. "While most Uzumaki heal faster and more efficiently than the average person, there are some clan members who heal at utterly ridiculous rates - like you and me."

"Why are we different?"

Karin's dad shrugged. "I'm not sure, but it's probably because I come from a long line of shinobi." Before Karin could even voice her question Kaito made to answer her. "A shinobi is the term for a someone in the military who uses their life-energy to fight. All the nation's armies are made up of them. Anyway," he said. "Having so much life-energy, or chakra, runs in families. My parents and grandparents had a lot of chakra so I have a lot. And you," he patted Karin's head. "Have a lot because I have a lot."

"Okay," Karin said slowly. "So let me get this straight - I healed overnight from a broken arm because you two come from a fallen country that was filled with our red-haired, super-healing family members and I have to keep this a secret from everyone else because there are still people hunting the survivors?"

Chiaki and Kaito shared a look. "Pretty much," they chorused.

"Right," Karin sighed. "Can I go back to bed now?"

* * *

_Two days after the accident:_

Karin had always had strange dreams. The people and places were often familiar, though she could never recall where she'd seen them before. They'd been fading as she aged, but the night after the accident she had her most vivid dream yet. In it, Karin was a young girl named Michaela celebrating her eighth birthday amid family and friends.

_How strange, _Karin thought, _I'm four, not eight, and none of those people live in town. Where could I have seen them before?_

* * *

_Three days after the accident:_

Luka looked Karin up and down before smiling in relief. "I'm glad you're okay," he said seriously. "When I ran to get your mom she said you'd be fine, but I didn't really believe her since you wouldn't wake up at first."

Karin laughed lightly. "Yeah, it must've been pretty scary. My mom says I fainted from the shock y'know?" For once, Karin was glad that Luka actually acted his age, unlike her. She knew he would accept whatever he was told had happened. This way, she could easily keep her family's secrets.

"Wow, I didn't even know that was possible," Luka grinned suddenly, "At least this means we can still play normally! I'll race you to the playground!" With that he took off running.

"Hey! No fair! You got a head-start!"

* * *

_Five weeks after the accident:_

It had been weeks since the accident and the dreams had continued each and every night. Even Karin's attempts to nap in the daytime were plagued with visions of another girl's life. The scenes stayed with her for the entirety of her waking hours. No matter what Karin chose to do something around her would remind her of what she'd witnessed.

In the dreams, Michaela's life flew by - quicker than Karin thought possible. It was like her subconscious was attempting to fast forward through months of Michaela's life at a time. For what purpose, Karin had no idea, but she was starting to think she and Michaela were closer than she'd ever imagined.

* * *

_Six weeks after the accident:_

"Karin! It's lovely to see you. Are you here to pick up your mom's tea?" The middle-aged woman set her baby in his basket and beckoned the girl to the back of her store without waiting for an answer.

"Yes," Karin lowered her voice to avoid waking Gio. "She was busy gathering medicinal plants for flu season and asked me to come instead."

Sora pulled the box of tea leaves down from its shelf and pressed it into Karin's waiting arms. "Good. We'll sorely need it if this year is anything like the last." The woman leaned down and took Karin's face in her hands. "Speaking of illnesses, are you feeling all right? I've never seen you quite so pale or tired looking. Usually you and that Luka boy are nothing but bundles of energy."

"I, uh, I haven't been sleeping very well," Karin admitted. "Did you hear about how I nearly broke an arm earlier this summer?"

"I did."

"Well, since then I've been having really strange dreams. It makes it hard for me to stay asleep at night." Karin flashed a reassuring smile at the woman she considered her aunt in all but blood. "I think the accident scared me a little bit. It's getting better though," she hastened to say when Sora frowned. "I'm not having them as often anymore." _More like I'm learning to act like they don't bother me, _Karin thought somewhat guiltily. But she really didn't want to worry her mother's friend. Sora had her baby to look out for already.

The frown didn't disappear, but Karin thought that the older woman's expression lightened just a bit. "Even so, I don't suppose you would say no to a brew that aids with deeper, dreamless rest?"

Karin smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Aunt Sora."

* * *

_Three months after the accident:_

Karin woke up with a violent shudder, jerking upright in her bed. It was the third time in as many hours that she'd been forcibly thrust from her rest. "I can't, I can't, I can't..." She mumbled blearily while trying hard not to shake. She anxiously licked her lips and tasted salt - _When did I start crying?_

It was at that moment that Karin realized she'd reached the end of Michaela's life - there were no more memories left to witness.

* * *

_Five months after the accident:_

"Mom, dad, can I talk to you for a minute?" Karin called as she shut the front door behind her. Months had passed since the dreams ended, and Karin was finally ready.

"Sure sweetheart, we're in the living room." She followed the sound of her mother's voice and sat down in the chair across from the couch. Her mom had put her book down and her dad had shifted so he was sitting upright.

Pushing aside all her emotions Karin took a deep breath and, after a moment of hesitation, spoke: "Do you remember when I fell from the playhouse and broke my arm?"

Kaito stared down at his four year old daughter in mild confusion. "Yes, I remember when you broke your arm. It was just this past summer. What about it?"

Karin looked everywhere but at her parents. "Since then I've been having these... dreams. Only, they're not really dreams," she confessed.

* * *

After hours of talking back and forth Karin and her parents finally lapsed into silence. Karin knew there would probably be more questions later, but for now all she wanted to do was go to sleep. She was exhausted emotionally and had burst into tears on three separate occasions while outlining her former life. A quick glance at her parents reveled they were still shaken, if their wide eyes and pale faces were anything to go by. On the verge of tears again Karin tightened her fists and glared at the floor.

"So you were in some sort of accident?" Chiaki asked.

"Yeah," Karin said quietly. "I-I think I _died_." A somber silence followed the proclamation. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Oh sweetheart! We don't care if this isn't your first life!" Karin yelped in surprise when she was suddenly squished into her mom's arms. "No matter what happens, you'll always be our daughter." The promise shocked Karin. She was once again impressed with the ease at which her mother could read her expressions and find the right words to soothe her fears.

Kaito reached over and ruffled her hair. "Besides, this just means you have an advantage over everyone else your age! There's nothing wrong with that."

Chiaki released her death grip on Karin, but didn't let her daughter leave her lap. "It's actually a bit of a relief."

"A relief? How?" Karin asked.

"Oh sweetheart," Chiaki stroked Karin's shoulder-length hair. "I have to admit, this explains a lot. You've always been really mature, and sometimes you knew about things you couldn't possibly have learned yet, but it wasn't until recently that you worried us. We didn't know why you were suddenly so quiet and withdrawn all of a sudden."

"Yeah," Kaito agreed. "We only want you to be happy. We don't care if you remember your past life. For all we know your mother and I could have been reincarnated as well - we just don't remember it like you do."

"So you're not mad?" Karin looked down and let her bangs cover her eyes. She was afraid that, despite their words, Chiaki and Kaito would see her as the girl who took over their child.

"Of course not," her mother insisted.

"Though I for one would like to hear more about your old life, if you're up to it," Kaito mused. "Another language, technology like what you described, and all those countries I've never heard of - it's really fascinating!"

"I don't mind at all," Karin said with a relieved smile so wide her cheeks ached. "In fact, I've really wanted to talk about it ever since the memories returned. I was so confused when it started," she admitted. "I mean, I still felt like me, but I also remembered being Michaela. She lived so much longer than me that I was afraid I would turn into her, that I wouldn't be _Karin_ anymore." Karin swallowed, remembering the panic she'd felt. "Thankfully that didn't happen. Instead, it's like..." She tried to find the words to describe her situation. "It's like I'm finally _whole_ - I'm one person, not two. I was Michaela once, but now I'm Karin; I've just got the experiences of both. I'm not Michaela in Karin's body, I'm Karin, formerly known as Michaela."

Chiaki hugged Karin to her chest again. "You must have been so frightened! I wish you would have told us sooner, we would've done our best to help."

Karin teared up suddenly. She was so, _so _glad to have such wonderful parents.

Of course, her dad just _had _to ruin the moment. "Y'know, if you think about it, it's like your an old lady in a kid's body!"

Karin froze in place before turning her head slowly and pinning her father with a flat stare. "Even if you count my first life, I'm still younger than you," she let a tiny smirk form before adding, "O_ld man_."

Her dad opened his mouth to retort, but stopped abruptly when he saw his wife's face. Slowly, cautiously, Karin turned to look up at her mother's face. Chiaki wore a serene smile Karin had only ever seen once before. _Oh-_"Shit," Kaito cursed, taking the words right out of Karin's head. Faster than she could blink, Karin found herself snatched from her mom's lap and tucked under her dad's arm like a football.

He sprinted from the living room as if the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels, with Karin urging him on.

Uzumaki Chiaki was older than her husband by roughly four years. The usually calm and collected woman was _extremely_ sensitive about the fact. Unfortunately for Karin and her dad, they'd both inadvertently implied she was ancient by calling each other old.

Karin only hoped there'd be enough of her left over for a proper burial once Chiaki was through with them.


End file.
